EVENTS

Why become a patron of blasphemous art?

Early in 2014, Jesus & Mo began to cost more money than it made. It has never made much money, as that was never the intention – but the sudden increase in the number and intensity of attacks on the website meant that, without financial help, Jesus & Mo would no longer be a viable enterprise. I love making the comic, but I am not willing to pay $250 plus per month just for the privilege of showing it to the world!

The high cost of hosting is largely down to the advanced Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection which is now necessary. This is provided by CloudFlare, and paid for out of J&M’s NearlyFreeSpeech account. Thanks to the generosity of readers, we now [May 2014] have enough in that account to keep us online for a couple of years, even if I never post another comic.

However, the donate-direct-to-host model is not ideal for me as the creator of J&M because I don’t get to see any of it. The funds are strictly ring-fenced for hosting purposes only.

This is where Patreon comes in. Any money raised through Patreon goes to me personally at the end of the month, when I can spend it on important things such as beer, books, and bicycle parts. Of course, I can also use it to top up the hosting account when necessary, or buy food for my family. That’s the clever thing about it!

Patreon pledges are entirely voluntary – you will never have to pay to read Jesus & Mo on the internet – and they can be cancelled at any time. Also, they come with an incremental system of patron rewards, depending on how much you pledge. It’s all pretty good fun, really.

Some readers may still prefer their donations to go towards hosting costs alone, and for those I have left the “Help keep J&M online” form at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar. Otherwise, please use